Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This is a brief letter from the writer Alberto Valdivia Portugal to Caretas magazine about the first prize recently awarded at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. After (apparently) congratulating the winner, Luis Zevallos [...]

This programmatic statement by the Grupo Arte Nuevo was included in the catalogue for their second exhibition, which ran from October to November 1966 at the MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima). Faced with “a world molded by the dramatic evolution of [...]

This is a letter written by art critic Élida Román, who at the time was the director of the Museo de Arte Italiano,an art gallery dependent on the Instituto Nacional de Cultura, addressed to the leadership of said institution. The letter advises [...]

In this text, Antenor Orrego argues that nationalist culture should not be based on the traditional cultures of Peru, but rather on a totally new Pan-American sensibility. Orrego argues that a contemporary “Peruanismo literario” is a false idea [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

This brief interview with Fernando de Szyszlo took place upon his return to Lima after having lived in Paris—which he calls “a fountain of life”—for a number of years. With enthusiasm, he describes the stimulating cultural milieu of the [...]

The author of this article, Clodoaldo López Merino, refers to his earlier article about the Peruvian painter Carlos Quízpez Asín while the latter was still studying in Madrid, Spain. On that occasion the journalist quoted some of the artist’s [...]

This text by Juan Acha is an important contribution to the debate that arose when Luis Zevallos Hetzel’s work, Motociclista No. 3, won the grand prize at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. Acha questions the accusation [...]

This is a poster for the Peruvian Folk Art exhibition at the XIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in 1977. The design includes only the title of the exhibition and an enlarged detail photograph of a Pucará Bull [...]

Alfonso La Torre interviews the photographer Eva Lewitus, who shares her opinions on the Peruvian folk art exhibition that was presented at the XIV Bienal de São Paulo in 1977. She thinks the exhibit did not reflect the full scope of this kind [...]

Romualdo Brughetti writes about artists who abide by visible and formal American constants and others who are defined by a formalism that originated in modern Europe. The article is about a question that came to light during the Peruvian artist Julia [...]

Though he does not mention a change as such in José Sabogal’s latest paintings, the author detects the presence or hint of certain nuances he had not noticed before. Carlos Raygada compares Procesión del Señor de los Milagros—painted in 1923, [...]

Kenneth Kemble writes about the dilemma of being simultaneously an art critic and an artist, mainly when one’s own work is being exhibited. The matter is worsened by having his wife, Silvia Torrás, included in the show as well. Also, Kemble [...]

This article by the critic Carlos Raygada is about the painter and poet César Moro, considered “one of the few exponents of modern art in Peru.” According to Raygada, Moro’s work is unknown because it “never appears in the kind of [...]

This charter document lists the main cultural guidelines established by the self-styled Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas Peruanas (1968–80). The text, which is divided into several chapters, discusses a number of prior situations and [...]

In this letter to painter Bill Caro, Emilio Harth-Terré asserts that the views of the neighborhoods of Lima Caro painted constitute “artistic expression” that goes beyond any attempt at social protest. The painter formulates, in Harth-Terré’s [...]

In response to the survey published by the Lima newspaper El Comercio as to the difference between “classical” and “modern” art, respondents provided different and, in some cases, contradictory answers. Responding to the question regarding [...]

Franklin Urteaga conducted this lengthy interview with Julia Codesido on the occasion of her recent exhibitions overseas. Referring to the first of these, at the recently inaugurated Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City, 1935), Urteaga notes the [...]

In this text, Raúl María Pereira reflects on the history of painting in Peru, affirming that the Incan “genius in form and color” lived on despite the Spanish conquest, not as a parallel or marginal entity, but as a force that acted on “the [...]

In response to de Szyszlo’s controversial statement “there are no painters in Peru,” sculptor Cristina Gálvez mentions four whom she considers excellent: Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, Ricardo Grau, Sérvulo Gutiérrez, and Julia Codesido. [...]

This article, written in 1919, was published several months after José Sabogal’s first exhibition due to, as the author explains, “the congestion of opinions, appraisals, and enthusiasm” that circulated at the time. Elvira García y García [...]

This article discusses the first exhibition in Lima (at Casa Brandes, in 1919) of the work of José Sabogal, who, after many years of study in Europe and Argentina, speaks out against the prevailing academicism in Peru and the art “of likeness” [...]

Óscar Fritz compares José Sabogal’s influence on the Peruvian visual arts to Martin Luther’s impact during the Reformation: a process that “sought to return to an earlier simplicity, to embrace a form of evangelical speech that mimicked the [...]

Reviewer Jorge C. Muelle confesses that he was wary before seeing the Mario Urteaga show at the Sociedad Filarmónica (Lima, 1937)—after all, “praise of spontaneous painters almost always leads them to ‘improve’ their resources, to copy [...]

Sabogal was from the province of Cajamarca but studied in Europe and Argentina; here he is described as a talented painter who was considered “rare” in Lima art circles, so that his emergence in the capital city “will bring light to many.” [...]

In this article Aitor Castillo talks about Pop Art in connection with the exhibition of works by Luis Zevallos Hetzel at the gallery of the Fundación para las Artes (Lima, 1969). Without directly mentioning it, Castillo refers to the controversy [...]

In this newspaper article, Oscar Cerruto discusses the work of the photographer Martín Chambi. Cerruto refers to Benedetto Croce’s idealistic philosophical concept about expressive beauty, which he uses to defend the artistic nature of photography [...]

Referring to the visual art he saw in Mexico, José Sabogal says that contemporary Mexican painting is already “the most serious American movement in art. It represents something truly national, truly American.” Its exponents (he mentions José [...]

In his interview with Carlos Raygada, Héctor Velarde explains that his work “has consisted of coordinating and realizing the original concept” for the Basílica de Santa Rosa de Lima, while abstaining as much as possible from any alteration of [...]

This text contains the polemic statements that Fernando de Szyszlo made on the occasion of his exhibition of abstract paintings held at the Asociación de Arquitectos del Perú in Lima in May 1951. He starts off by provocatively asserting that “ [...]

In 1937, Ricardo Peña wrote about José Sabogal’s work on the occasion of his exhibition at the Sociedad Filarmónica, suggesting that the paintings on display could be classified, in terms of “his ethical and artistic approach,” into three [...]

This article was written by the Peruvian politician and writer, Magda Portal, focusing on the work of the artist, Elena Izcue. In Portal’s opinion, looking at the past would not represent a step backward, since the past is where we find the promise [...]

This is the second of the two textbooks published by Elena Izcue, which were designed to teach art based on pre-Hispanic motifs at Peruvian schools. It includes two introductory texts. The first, addressed to teachers, explains how the pedagogical [...]

By illustrating the work of the Peruvian artist Cossio del Pomar, the author exposes his concept of the artist as “the laborer of the idea,” a cultural humanistic model and an agent in pursuit of new forms of social consciousness. In a way, this [...]

This is the first extensive challenge to the artistic credentials of Motociclista No. 3, the painting by Luis Zevallos Hetzel that was awarded first prize at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. The challenger is Augusto [...]

In this article, the French writer Francis de Miomandre notes that Europeans are largely unaware of the exuberance of current Latin American art, as exemplified by the group exhibition of works by painters from the region: Santos Balmori, Jaime [...]

Here, Edgardo Pérez Luna praises the mural by Teodoro Núñez Ureta executed in the building that housed Peru’s Treasury Department. The writer argues that the allegories created by the painter in the mural elude the conventions of the genre and [...]

The author of this article thinks that Peru does a better job of addressing its potential in the artistic arena than in the social or political sphere, although this has begun to change in recent years. In his opinion, José Sabogal’s paintings are [...]

In this newspaper article José Eulogio Garrido describes his impressions on first meeting José Sabogal in the city of Trujillo (where he was born), and admits to having been one of the few people who were able to recognize an outstanding artist [...]

The author notes José Sabogal’s comments about his earlier travels and his training in Europe, which he said was helpful for learning “the tricks of the trade, how to move one’s hand smoothly, that’s all,” but claimed that he resisted any [...]

The aim of this article by José Uriel García, known throughout Peru for his book El nuevo indio, published in 1930, is to argue that José Sabogal is the emblematic contemporary Peruvian painter. Sabogal is, in García’s view, a founding figure [...]

In this article the writer Humberto Suárez (who uses the pseudonym Kocha-Puma) profiles the photographer Martín Chambi. Suárez describes the city of Cuzco as an emblematic artistic center that indigenous artists should work to promote. He [...]

In his article about the exhibition of works by José Sabogal held at the Sociedad Filarmónica in Lima in 1937, Estuardo Núñez suggests that Sabogal’s paintings were not just the product of a particular school or trend but were required [...]

This article by the Peruvian writer, Dora Mayer, focuses on the work of the artist, Elena Izcue, who managed to tie “el hilo flotante de la cultura incaica al hilo extirado [sic] de la cultura actual” [the floating thread of Inca culture to a [...]

In this article, Froylán Miranda Nieto argues that Ricardo Grau’s painting “contributes to Peru by wholeheartedly supporting avant-garde art.” He asserts that, because “neither Indianist nor Europeanizing,” the artist has a special place [...]

The writer Luis Miró Quesada Garland explains why—in spite of being a known defender of Abstract art—he supported a figurative painting by Alfredo Ruiz Rosas for the first prize at the Second Salón Moncloa. His vote was based on strictly [...]

In this essay, Peruvian art critic and diplomat Raúl María Pereira provides an overview of Peruvian painting from the first half of the twentieth century. While the author praises the first generation of academic painters, he believes that their [...]

The Peruvian intellectual Jorge Falcón interviews José Sabogal about his visit to several cities in the United States in 1942 at the invitation of the State Department. Sabogal admits that until then, he did not have a complete view of the [...]

The Art Department of the Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), directed by Walter Dehner, announces its intention to hold an exhibition of contemporary Peruvian art in the year 1938. The leading figures in the Peruvian “Indianist” movement at the [...]

According to the author of this text, the works by César Moro on exhibit are aggressively disconcerting; indeed, there is “nothing to say about ‘things’ so removed from mainstream painting.” The author points out that, at this time, the [...]